(Old Milton County)

OLD MILTON COUNTY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY PAGE

Updated June 15, 2009

The purpose of this web page is relate the history of the county and the lives of the people who lived here. You may submit any information. Family histories and stories are especially welcome. We will publish anything relating to the county.

We will not publish anything detrimental to any person, but would like to have any information of a positive nature. We will attempt to make changes on a monthly basis or as the necessity arises. In order to have your information published you can contact:

Howard or Elsie Knight

You should also visit our other Milton County site for census data, court records, etc.

Any comments are welcome.

William S. (Billy) Bates is our Milton County Historian. Mr. Bates has been active in the history and genealogy of Old Milton County as well as surrounding counties for many years.

New!! Milton County Town Sales (see below under "Interesting Stuff")

SPOTLIGHT

Fred & Mary Bates Chatham

Fred & Mary Bates Chatham were born and raised in Milton County. Fred was the son of William Miron and Mary Etta Chathem. Mary's parents were James N. And Martha J. Bates.

They were listed in the census from 1890 to 1930. They were listed in the 1890, 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 census'. Fred was born on September 17, 1895 and died in March 1980. Mary Bates Chatham was born June 7, 1896 and died in October 1968. They were married July 8, 1917 by Reverend Bartow A. Phillips. They belonged to Providence Baptist Church until the late 1930's and then joined Mt. Oliver Baptist Church. Fred was a Deacon at Mt. Oliver Church on Hardscrabble Road and a lifetime farmer. (Granddaddy used to say "I was born in 1895 and born-again in 1905.")

They lived on the corner of Rucker Road and Crabapple Road from about1947 until their deaths. They are buried at Providence Cemetery.

Children:
James Howard Chatham
born: 5/21/1921, founder of Chathambilt Homes and Northside Realty. He built his first house for his dad and mother in 1947 where they liver and dug the foundation with a plow and a mule. He is a deacon also.

Florence Willene Chatham
born: 3/26/1925 and died November 29, 1930.

Marvin Fred Chatham
born April 11, 1929, a builder and realtor all his life and a Minister beginning in 1950. He was pastor of many northern Georgia churches. Marvin Chatham died April 27, 2009.

Martha Kate Chatham
born April 11/1929 and died July 26,1930.

Aubry Raymond Chatham
born December 18, 1933, builder/plumbing contractor most of his life. He was a Deacon also. He recently passed away.

Sibyl Marie Chatham born August 3,1935 and died October 18, 1935

Mary Joyce Chatham born: April 5, 1939. Joyce spent her entire working life with her brother Howard in his office. She is married to a Deacon.

I am their grandson.
Myron Chatham

Obituary

Milton School
1922 - 2005
Milton High School closed May, 2005. Survivors include thousands of "Faithful Sons and Faithful Daughters."

In 1920, bonds were issued for $18,500, to be paid starting November 1931. Twenty three acres in Land Lots 1251 and 1270 were purchased from I. N. Thompson for the sum of three thousand dollars and seven acres from Land Lot 1259 from W. N. Williams in January 1921.

Much of the construction of the school building was done by the local residents. From the journal of Dewey Burnett we find that he, Wade Shirley and Abb Anderson started digging the well for the new school on June 6, 1921. He also writes in his diary of starting the new building June 13, 1921. The last day of School in the Academy, a school located on Academy Street in Alpharetta, was December 21, 1921.

January 2, 1922, was the first day of school in the new building. Several of the students tell of walking from the old Academy School to the new Milton School on School Drive.

The corner stone was to have been set May 16, 1922, but for some reason it was not. On that night Dewey Burnett, Kate Walker and Clyde Andrews received their certificates.

In the early days Milton was a brick two story structure with enough rooms to accommodate 11 grades, two small offices, a library and auditorium. From the front entrance the Sanctum Sanctorium was on the left. Directly ahead was the auditorium. There was a fire escape on the second floor just outside "Miss Gertrude's" fourth grade classroom. Nobody was supposed to slide down except in case of a fire.

In the beginning the school included first through eleventh grades. The twelfth grade was added in 1950. Students in surrounding county schools transferred to Milton in the eighth grade. Students from Roswell transferred to Milton in the tenth grade. The Alpharetta Elementary School was built in 1957 and grades one through seven transferred to the new Elementary School.

Talmage and Lounette Shaw Burgess both graduated from Milton as did their five children, six of their grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Two of their great grandchildren will graduate from the new school. Talmage and Lounette both played basketball for Milton in the 1920's.

Piano lessons were given by Mrs. Blanche Maddox in a room to the left of the stage in the auditorium. Piano recitals were given at the school.

During WWII sports programs stopped. There was an ROTC Unit at the school. After the war Alpharetta had a terrific baseball team with veterans (most of whom were former students). Baseball games were played at the school. In 1948, one female student was an excellent basketball player. However, she was not allowed to play for the school because her mother would not allow her to wear shorts.

In the fifties things changed. The elementary students moved from the center building to the former high school building on the right and the high school classes moved to the center building and the building on the left. After 1957 the changes to the school continued and soon the building changed completely.

In the early days the school colors were purple and gold. The curtain on the stage was purple trimmed with gold. The colors now are red and white and navy blue. Our school song has not changed.

"Let our voices loudly ringing,
Echo far and near
Songs of praise thy children
Singing to thy memory dear.
Through the years we spent
together, fondly we recall
Days of fair and stormy weather
Thou has gladdened all.

Milton High School, Milton High School
Tender, strong and true
Faithful sons and faithful daughters
All our vows renew."

There are ten graves in the Rest Haven Cemetery in Alpharetta which are marked with initials only. Dolores Mueller remembers the full names of those buried there. These graves lie just below Jesse Eugene & Mary Jane Jenkins.

AJB Adeline Jane Broadwell 12/1883 12/23/1963
VJC Virginia Elizabeth Jenkins Cooper 07/09/1914 10/17/1942
EDJ Edd D (Bubba) Jenkins 01/24/1905 08/16/1931
LEJ Laura Ectalene Broadwell Jenkins 07/17/1885 04/24/1924
JTJ Jr John Thomas Jenkins, Jr 07/1912 07/02/1913
S J Samantha Jenkins 04/1924 04/1924
JTJ John Thomas Biggers Jenkins 08/09/1881 10/09/1960
HJ Hilda Jenkins 2 days old 02/1928 dau of Carl & Cleo Jenkins
EJ Ectalene Jenkins 1920 dau of John T & Laura Jenkins
REJ Rueben Eugene Jenkins 02/17/1901 11/17/1902 Son of Jess & Mary Jane Jenkins
Our thanks to Dolores for supplying this information.

Strickland Cemetery
Leo W. Little of Austin, Texas, writes, "I recently came across an article by Ted Brooke on the "Strickland Cemetery (aka Little or Terry cemetery) in Shakerag, GA" in Vol 31 No 2 of the Georgia Genealogical Society Quarterly . The cemetery is in Forsyth Co, but many of the people in it lived their lives just across the county line in Milton Co. I've scanned the article and transcribed it (using a character recognition program). I'd like to share it with other researchers of Forsyth and Milton counties, and am attaching it in case you would like to include it on your web site. I just got an e-mail from Ted Brooke that it's OK to do so. I'm attaching two version of the article -- a Word Document that preserves the exact format of the original article, and a Text Document that uses slashes in place of tabs that might be more readable if the text is on-line. I'd also like to post this information on the Forsyth and Milton county message boards on rootsweb/ancestry. Best Regards, Leo W. Little, Austin, TX"

Early Milton County

Jurors

Constables

Milton County Officials

Justices of the Peace and Notary Publics

Churches in Old Milton County

Betty Castleberry Turner has prepared a history of the churches in the Old Milton County area. We believe it is very accurate and would like you to improvise upon it with additional information and anecdotes you may have available. We also invite you to furnish us with information and/or history of churches in the area that no longer exist.

Old Milton County Communities

by Tim SpruellWhere do you live? How many people who live in developer subdivisions would recognize the names of Ocee, Shakerag, Warsaw, Newtown, Birmingham, Hopewell, or even Crabapple? I was is a planning meeting when a snobby new resident (who had lived in the subdivision that replaced Mr. Corley’s corn field for five whole years) was disappointed when the name of Ocee was going to be preserved in the name of a shopping center. She felt it was “too provincial.” I had to remind her that she had chosen to live in Ocee, and if she were not happy here, all the older residents of Ocee would help her move. I am now glad that the community name continues. I can only hope that just a little knowledge of the history of the communities of old Milton County will help preserve them.

In Georgia, Counties were founded in the nineteenth century so that anyone living in the county could reach the county seat in just one day’s easy journey. This distance requirement is why there are so many counties in Georgia and also why the counties are smaller in the mountains of north Georgia. Milton County was formed in 1857 from parts of Cherokee, Forsyth, and even DeKalb Counties when it was felt that the people in the extremes of these counties lived too far away. Alpharetta was incorporated as the county seat, and a courthouse was built. Because of the distance requirement of one day’s journey, the town would be too far to travel for a family’s immediate needs. Therefore, communities were formed so that families would have quicker access to stores and supplies they could not grow or create on their farms. These communities were often still close to half a day’s journey away because it took much more time to travel by foot or even farm wagon.

Communities

Birmingham	Crabapple	Hopewell
Midway	Newtown	Ocee
Shakerag	Warsaw	Webb Georgia

OLD MILTON COUNTY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY PAGE

Updated June 15, 2009

New!! Milton County Town Sales (see below under "Interesting Stuff")

SPOTLIGHT

Fred & Mary Bates Chatham

Spotlight Archives

"I Remember"

Family Histories

Interesting Stuff

Copyright 2008-2009 by Elsie Knight